A Disclosed Past
by Fractal Dreamer
Summary: In the memory, he looked sweet, almost like a gentleman with his hand flat over his chest and a soft smile on his face as he addressed himself politely. But she knew that wasn't who he was. Post-KH3 fic where Namine uncovers a memory of Ven's past.


Summary: In the memory, he looked sweet, almost like a gentleman with his hand flat over his chest and a soft smile on his face as he addressed himself politely. But she knew that wasn't who he was. Post-KH3 fic where Namine uncovers a memory of Ven's past.

* * *

Namine gasped as her eyes flung open. With the sudden action, an involuntary cry came out of the one laying on the couch in front of her. Her gaze refocused to her literal surrounding and a smaller gasp left her lips as she realized what just transpired.

"Ventus! That wasn't supposed to happen… I'm so sorry!" She apologized as earnestly as she could, both hands clasped over her chest as Ven sat up holding his forehead.

"Ow, that _really_ hurt." He replied, barely aware of anything but the two of them in the room. He gave himself a moment to refocus and allow the throbbing pain in his skull to dull and the odd sensation in his chest to ease.

The earthy shades of red, brown, yellow, orange and all the mixtures in between made the room feel warm and cozy; a perfect place for Namine to perform her memory manipulation with little disturbance. A home Ansem the Wise offered to her as she had no other place to go upon revival.

"What happened?" Ven managed to open one eye to peer over at her. Despite seeing obvious shame for her previous mistake, the look on her face screamed horror and he had no idea why. "Is something wrong?"

"I…" she paused, her voice escaping her as she looked away from him to find the words she wanted to say. "I… lost focus and flinched. One of the strands of memory I was handling got pulled. I'm so sorry." It was unheard of for her to act so carelessly when working with the memories of Sora and those connected to him, but Ventus couldn't find a reason to be upset because the thought never even occurred to him.

"Hey, don't worry about it, we all make mistakes." He reassured her with a sincere smile as he rubbed his temples. Her posture didn't change, however, "Really, I'm fine; the pain's already going away."

That brought a smile to her face, but her mind still seemed elsewhere. She reframed from looking at him and kept her head bowed in thought.

"So," he started again, looking to ease her tension, "Did you find anything? I can't really remember much… aren't my memories supposed to come back to me once they get fixed?"

Finally, she met his gaze eye to eye, "Yes of course, but I wasn't able to fix any of your memories; your situation is… unique." She laid her hands down on her lap. "This may very well be the same as it was with Sora. I was able to fix his memories, but could only so do when Roxas returned to him." She noticed the peaceful air around him seemly vanish as he now looked away and down at his own lap.

She understood completely, "I'm afraid without Vanitas, those memories cannot be repaired."

He sighed, "I understand."

"But that is only the case for the broken ones." She continued, knowing his spirits would lift with the truth. And they did; his attention back on her, "Other memories of yours have just been unraveled and can be woven back together given time. I can still help with those, but any outside influence can also trigger them to weave themselves back too, as I'm sure you already know."

He chuckled at that, half out of agreement and half out of being reminded of his previous painful experiences.

"So…" A small smile appeared on his face, "time heals all, huh?" She returned the gesture and proceeded with a firm nod. "And we can still have these sessions?"

"Yes of course."

He turned himself to plant his feet on the floor, the two nearly knee to knee, "Great, I wouldn't have it any other way. Just promise me you won't go pulling any more unnecessary strands, okay." Ven teased with a cheeky smile.

He earned a giggle from her, "I promise."

"Then I'll see you next time." He said optimistically as he stood and made his way toward the door. She watched him leave, expecting the door to close behind him when it suddenly stopped half-way.

"Hey, Namine?" He began, his head popping back into the room. She hummed in response for him to continue. "Thank you."

Her surprise shouldn't have been as apparent as she let it, but all the same, she was extremely grateful. They were indeed a lot alike, Sora and him.

"You're welcome." She replied with a smile that couldn't have gotten any bigger and he closed to door afterward.

Her gaze soon drifted from the exit and her face dropped as she allowed the memory of what she saw to return to her. With it still fresh in her mind, she got up from her seat and walked over to her desk where her drawing tablet lay. Upon opening the top drawer, over a dozen crayons rolled into view and she took out the colors she needed.

They were another gift for her, this time from Sora. She wanted to give him something too, in return, but he told her it was just another thank you for all the things she did. And though a small portion of her didn't believe she deserved all the gratitude, the majority of her appreciated everything they did.

When she overheard of the problem with Ventus' memories and saw the worried looks of Terra and Aqua and felt the sorrow from Sora, she never dared to say no. Instead, she jumped at the opportunity and suggested the sessions to help retrieve his memory and ease the pain he'd get when Vanitas would purposefully trigger another portion of his lost past. And just as quickly as she offered, Ventus excepted.

At the start of each session, the two of them talked. They shared their memories and experiences and Namine learned more and more about him. Sometimes, as Ven would drift off to sleep, she would draw him. He always looked so peaceful, so carefree even though his life seemed to be anything but that. It was one of those drawings she was staring at now, but a smile couldn't form on her face as she held fast to the image in her mind.

She flipped the page to a new blank one and sat down to begin her work. She started with a rough outline before adding in the color. White for the shirt, black for the vest, dark pink for the pants, light pink for his hair… and blue eyes that stared right back into hers.

In the memory, he looked sweet, almost like a gentleman with his hand flat over his chest and a soft smile on his face as he addressed himself politely. But she knew that wasn't who he was.

As she looked over her finished work, the strand of Ven's memory she had manage to uncover, the very one that scared her half to death, and the one that caused her to flinch away and accidentally hurt him, played out in her mind.

 _"My name is Lauriam. Nice to meet you."_

* * *

"Mmmmmarluuuxia…?" Sora examined with squinted eyes at the drawing held up to his face. He held that classic thinking-pose as Namine presented to him her work and her worries.

"Yes exactly, only it's not Marluxia, it's his somebody: Lauriam."

"Lauriam?" Sora repeated in question, whispering the letters as he thought hard to rearrange them. "Yeah, that sounds about right, but… wait, I—'m confused. He looks around our age here."

Namine withdrew her tablet and flipped it over to view it once more, "In Ven's memory, they were around the same age when they met."

"Was there anything else you saw, like where they were?"

She shook her head, "Not really, no. The memory wasn't focused on where they were but rather Lauriam himself." She looked away for a brief moment, blinking her eyes as she replayed the memory in her mind. "Although, I believe it was dry… and hot."

"Dry and hot, dry and hot, dry and hot… a desert—Oh, what about Agrabah?!" He exclaimed, his eyes lighting up.

She shook her head again, "I can't say for certain." Sora sighed in response and slouched back down in her sofa. "I just don't understand, it should be impossible. Ventus never met Marluxia, and there are no current memories of them meeting all those years ago. And knowing who Marluxia is…" She turned away, walking towards the window with the tablet close to her chest. "After our whole ordeal with Xehanort, I don't want anything else bad happening to Ven."

"None of us want that, Namine," Sora replied, taking a more serious approach as he stood to walk over to her. "We're all looking out for each other, but we can't ignore the fact that he may just be like Axel—er, Lea. Remember how Axel used to act? Now look at him, Lea isn't even the same person. It's the same way with me and Roxas and the same could be said for Lauriam and Marluxia."

When she only looked at him, he continued, "Hey, I hate Marluxia just as much as you do and would rather see him gone completely than coming back as a somebody, but everyone deserves a second chance. We can't deny him that just because of what his nobody did… not that all nobodies are bad… you get what I mean."

She smiled and turned to face him wholly, "No, I understand. Thank you, Sora."

He gave her a cheeky smile and shifted his weight onto his left, "Anytime! I'm happy to help. Oh, by the way, what did Ven have to say about all of this?"

"He… doesn't know."

"Huh?"

"I was too startled at the time to say anything and I wasn't sure what his reaction would be; whether or not it would cause him pain." She looked down at her drawing again, "I'm still not sure if I should tell him, it may very well be painful for him as the strand of memory was more connected to his heart than his mind." She continued, "If I placed him in a deeper sleep like I did with you, I'd be able to safely weave together those strands that were connected with that memory. But the thought of doing so feels… wrong. I don't want him to be placed into another sleep like that."

"Hmmm," Sora thought to himself. He completely understood where she was coming from and agreed one hundred percent, but keeping something like that from Ven also felt wrong. It was _his_ memory, something they were all trying to help him get back and now they had to keep it from him?

"Should we tell the others?" she suggested hesitantly.

He was torn. Telling the others about what Namine found felt like thrusting the burden onto their shoulders as well and he wasn't about to do that. On the other hand, keeping it all a secret felt like betraying their trust. At the same time, having everyone know about it, everyone except Ven, they'd all be betraying _his_ trust.

But Ventus was a very understanding person, and Sora felt more at ease to take all the blame than to single out his friend among the others.

"No, I don't want this problem to become theirs. Can we keep it a secret between the two of us? At least until we _can_ tell him?"

It wasn't the first time she would keep something like this a secret. When handling Sora's memories beforehand, she had stumbled onto Ven's sleeping heart and the others dwelling within. Just as she wanted to prepare Sora for their hurt, this situation also called for such an action.

"Yes, of course." She replied earnestly and flipped the pages over the one of Lauriam to close the tablet. "And I'll try not to pry into any more of those memories that may be connected to it."

"Good. Thank you, Namine."

She shook her head, but kept a smile on her face, "You don't have to thank me. Any friend of Ven's would do the same."


End file.
